I went straight to the feed ranking angle and spent too long there before realizing they probably wanted me to think about the full feature, discovery surfaces, content aggregation, moderation considerations.
Start by clarifying the goal of 'Hot Topics'—likely to surface trending content and increase engagement—and define success metrics. Then outline a high-level design covering data sources, ranking algorithms, and user interface, while addressing scalability and privacy. Finally, discuss trade-offs and potential iterations.
Pro tip: Emphasize how you would leverage existing Instagram infrastructure (e.g., hashtags, Explore) to bootstrap the feature, and propose A/B tests to validate engagement lift before full rollout.
Ask questions to understand the feature's purpose, target users, and success metrics (e.g., increase time spent, DAU). Define what 'hot' means (e.g., rapidly growing engagement).
Outline the system components: data ingestion (posts, hashtags, interactions), processing (trend detection, ranking), storage, and serving. Consider real-time vs batch processing.
Describe how to rank topics: use signals like velocity, volume, diversity, and user affinity. Discuss personalization to avoid echo chambers and ensure freshness.
Propose where the feature appears (e.g., Explore tab, search, notifications) and how users interact. Ensure seamless integration with existing Instagram UI.
Define success metrics (CTR, engagement, retention) and outline A/B testing plan. Discuss potential risks (e.g., spam, misinformation) and mitigation.
AI-generated suggestions, not part of the candidate's original notes. May be inaccurate — verify before relying on them.